Dear readers, on Friday the Gabonese National Communication Council (CNC), a government agency that is supposed to regulate the media in Gabon but is in effect acting as the government censorship agency, suspended two independent newspapers for 6 months. According to the press release of the CNC which was read on national television, these papers did not respect state institutions and the people who run them. Dear readers, Gabon is one of the rare countries in which calling a crook a crook can get a newspaper suspended, if that crook happens to be either the president, or anyone associated with the regime.

Above, you can read the press release of the CNC suspending these newspapers. This press release is in French; however the suspension only concerns a handful of independent publications which dare to operate outside of the media controlled by Ali Bongo and his henchmen. But several people in Gabon and outside have vouched not to take this additional instance of censorship lying down and this blog will certainly do its part to make sure that these newspapers can find outlets in which they could continue to be published so people can still read their editorials.

This blog would like to let the journalists of “La Une” and “Ezombolo”, and other independent publications, know that they can send their articles to us in PDF format and we would publish them immediately and without any restrictions. All they have to do is send us these articles via email. We should not be deterred by threats of censorship in Gabon and should use the tool of internet publishing to fight this stupid and unacceptable censorship. Since when is it a crime to denounce the lack of freedoms and the poverty in Gabon? There have been police raids at the offices of domiciles of journalists, in which police have confiscated computers and documents, but that has not stop these newspapers and these journalists to continue to publish the truth. They have always managed to find a way to do their job and to publish the right information. This recent Ali Bongo’s regime crackdown on journalists and newspapers only highlights a growing need for all of us to participate in the proliferation of dissident writing on the Web. The reporters of “La Une” and “Ezombolo” should continue to write and publish on the web. They should continue to provide testimony of the indignities happening in Gabon.

The Gabonese free civil society has issue a press release also condemning this censorship. Here is the content of their press release:

Suspending of Newspapers in Gabon: Reaction From The Civil Society

On Friday, August 3rd, the National Communications Council (CNC) decided to suspend “Ezombolo” and “La Une” for a period of six months. According to the CNC, the two newspapers “seriously threaten public order”, violate the “constitutional order" in launching a call to insurrection" for criticizing the president, the prime minister and the outgoing president of the African Union’s Commission.

This suspension is one too many. It occurs in an arbitrary manner while, unmolested at each of its publications, the pro-presidential press defames and insults routinely compatriots and drags in the mud all forms of protest, the daily L'Union does not hesitate to insult diplomats and members of foreign governments, and La Griffe can insult and caricature, among others, the Archbishop of Libreville, Gabon's first moral authority who is not known to have a strong commitment for dissidence.

The Gabonese civil society denounces this desire to destroy our free press. It reaffirms its determination to defend its freedoms of opinion, association and expression.

It warns the political power against its totalitarian reflex that despises our aspirations and our fundamental rights and freedoms. It is not by banning gatherings, free expression and contradictory debates that he would impose itself. Even by force.

Respect for the institutions means that they respect the citizen first. As long as Ali Bongo’s power and Ali Bongo his lackeys stubbornly would treat us like children that one leads with a stick, we would never recognize it as any authority whatsoever. As long as it would consider us as subjects of a despot whose sole legitimacy is his dynastic inheritance, it will find resolutely committed citizens willing to take responsibility in order to conquer their sovereignty and their self-respect which has been confiscated. Therefore, we solemnly urge the leaders of “La Une” and “Ezombolo” not to submit to the arbitrary decisions of an institution this is obeying orders.

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